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Can Sudan Be Saved?

Spanish Translation

By Nelida Gonzalez Cutler

Halima was working in her family's field in Darfur,a region of Sudan, in Africa, when she heard "the voice of guns" last July. "The attackers wanted to kill us," she told TIME. "We had to hide and walk at night. We had nothing to eat." It took Halima, 30, and her young daughter three weeks to reach the Abu Shouk refugee camp.

Darfur is full of stories like Halima's. Aid workers say the violence that began in February 2003 has killed tens of thousands and forced some 1.5 million people from their homes. Many people have sought shelter in crowded refugee camps. At least half of the refugees cannot get enough food and clean water. Because of continuing violence, aid is not reaching all those who need it.

On October 15, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported that at least 70,000 refugees have died since March because of poor conditions in the camps. United Nations (U.N.) officials have called Darfur's situation the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The U.N. has received only half of the $300 million it needs to help care for the region's people.

Devils on Horseback
Most of Darfur's 6 million people are farmers or herders. The nomadic herders migrate between the region's north and south. Most of the farmers are African, and most of the herders are Arab. Nearly all are black and Muslim and speak Arabic. Both groups want to work the same land. In the 1980s, the conflict over land turned violent.

The recent fighting began with an uprising of black Africans against what they viewed as discrimination by the predominately Arab government. In response, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on local tribes to crush the rebellion. Some Arab nomads saw the president's call as a chance to grab land and livestock from the farmers. By August, armed Arab bandits, called Janjaweed, had begun attacking African farmers. Janjaweed loosely means "devils on horseback."

What Can Be Done to Help Darfur?
For more than a year, as the violence in Darfur has escalated, most of the world has done nothing about it. The United States says the Janjaweed are paid and armed by Sudan's government. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress, "Genocide has been committed in Darfur, and the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility." Genocide (jeh-nuh-side) is a deliberate attempt to kill or seriously hurt a race or group of people.

Human-rights groups say the world needs to move rapidly to impose economic and military punishments against Sudan. If nothing is done, many more people will die, either at the hands of the Janjaweed or from starvation and disease.

So far, the U.N. has refused to punish Sudan, and the United States has ruled out sending U.S. troops. Instead, both the U.N. and the U.S. support efforts by the African Union, which represents the continent's nations. Last Wednesday, the African Union said that it "welcomed the support of the international community" and would increase the size of its peacekeeping force in Darfur from 390 to 3,320 troops and civilian police.

At a meeting in Libya last week, the presidents of Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Libya and Nigeria stressed that they would reject any foreign intervention in Sudan. They called the crisis in Sudan a "purely African" issue. It seems that much of the world agrees.

A Look at Sudan

Size: 967,493 square miles; about one-fourth the size of the United States. Sudan is the largest country in Africa.

Population: 39,148,162

Ethnic groups: Black, 52%; Arab, 39%; and others, 9%

Languages: Arabic, Nubian and others

Capital: Khartoum

Government: The military rules Sudan. The president is Field Marshal Omar al-Bashir.

History: What is now northern Sudan was once the ancient civilization of Nubia. Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt. In modern times, Egypt and Britain ruled Sudan. The country proclaimed its independence in 1956. Since 1983, a civil war in the south--unrelated to the Darfur violence--has killed more than 2 million people and displaced more than 4 million.

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